The field of supramolecular chemistry has long explored the balance of non-covalent interactions like hydrogen bonding, charge transfer (CT), and π-π stacking to develop novel functional materials. Several groups have demonstrated the assembly of molecules into functional one-dimensional (αD) structures with biological or electronic applications (Hartgerink, J. D. et al., 2001 Science 294, 1684; Hartgerink, J. D. et al., 2002 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 99, 5133; Silva, G. A. et al., 2004 Science 303, 1352; Hill, J. et al., 2004 Science 304, 1481 (2004); and Yamamoto, Y. et al., 2006 Science 314, 1761). Electron donor-acceptor complex crystals, which also form 1D assemblies, exhibit properties such as metallic conduction, ferroelectricity, and magnetism, whereby these attributes result from the electron transfer from an electron rich donor to an electron poor acceptor along one dimension (Alves, H. et al., 2008 Nat Mater 7, 574; Collet, E. et al., 2003 Science 300, 612; and Jain, R. et al., 2007 Nature 445, 291). Generally, organic CT complexes form a mixed stack or segregated stack lattice in which donors and acceptors assemble into face-to-face or edge-to-edge pairs, respectively. However, few purely organic molecular systems with higher dimensionality have been observed whereby electron density may be shared in orthogonal dimensions (Moody, G. J. et al., 1987 Angew Chem Int Edit 26, 890; and Ashton, P. R. et al., 1994 J Chem Soc Chem Comm, 181).
It is therefore desirable to provide a two-dimensional (2D) supramolecular network of charge transfer complexes that exhibit bidirectional charge transfer and monodomain visible pleochroism.